Pool Themed Cookies Swim Trunk (Royal Icing)

The second part for my faithful customer 80 cookie order for her son's party. She picked starfish and swim trunk cookies. Yesterday I showed you the starfish, today I show the swim trunks from the order.

If you're in need or cookies for a party or just to eat, shoot me a msg at SweetPea Cookie Therapy. Thank you!

What you Need:
Swim Trunks Cookie Cutter (I bought mine on Ebay)
Royal Icing - Blue, Green and Uncolored White (see recipe below) 
Pipping Bag (w/ white royal icing) 

I used the dipping method with my royal icing. This speeds up my decorating time. You can pipe each cookie which is a little cleaner but I find the dipping method to be the best. You get your royal icing to the outline consistency and put into a pie dish (I find this is not too deep). BEFORE the cookies dry you add the details. I used a pipping bag of white to add a little details on the shorts. I made a drawstring on the top of the cookies and add some dots to give them character. The party colors was green and blue so I made these in those colors, it can be done in any color.

 Here are both cookie shapes made:

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INGREDIENTS:

1 1/2 cups butter, softened 2 cups white sugar 4 eggs 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

5 cups all-purpose flour 2 teaspoons baking powder 1 teaspoon salt

DIRECTIONS:

1.	In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Stir in the flour, baking powder, and salt. Cover, and chill dough for at least one hour (or overnight).
2.	Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Roll out dough on floured surface 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick. Cut into shapes with any cookie cutter. Place cookies 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheets.
3.	Bake 6 to 8 minutes in preheated oven. Cool completely.

Julie Usher, she has a GREAT YouTube video on how to make, color and make consistency adjustments. 

Royal Icing what you need:

2 lbs Powdered Sugar

1/2 tsp Cream of Tartar

5 Large Egg Whites (or equivalent) 

Flavor to Taste

Gel Icing Color

Mix powder sugar and cream of tartar in your mixer, just to make sure it is incorporated in. Slowly add egg whites, then whip start of slow then go to very high speed. She says around 2 minutes, my friend had an older mixer so it took almost 10 minutes. You want stiff peaks that hold on and won't fall off the spoon. Add in your flavor, I would suggest you use a clear flavoring.  This would be the glue texture great for ginger bread houses etc.

Take 1 cup of royal icing in a smaller bowl then add your coloring, lightly mix so you don't get air into the the icing. I'm like her and like the gel coloring. 

For Top Coating - Add 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 tsp Water (This is if you don't want to outline and flood)

For Outlining - Add 1/2 to 3/4 tsp Water

For Flooding  - Add 2 to 3 tsp Water

WATCH her video on How to Top-Coat, Outline, and Flood Cookies. YES it is around 7 minutes BUT if you have never done this technique it's a MUST she explains it perfectly.

I must have swim trunks!

If you’re new to my blog we have an exchange student staying with us until June. Two weeks ago we got a slip of paper from his school letting us know about a field trip to a pool (yes in the winter) for 12/18. I asked him about the swim trunks he wore you know 4 months ago! He informed me they were fine and that was last I heard about it!

That is until Sunday Rick comes up to me, do you know that Roy needs swim trunks for Thursday? What? I asked him 2 weeks ago and he told me they were fine. Well he just told me that he told you he needed new ones and now he’s freaking out since it’s only a few days away. Ugh … Really does everything have to be like this? So I go to his room and ask about the swim trunks. I get the usual look; you know the one where I have a 3rd eye growing out my forehead! Did I sleep thru this conversation where you told me you needed swim trunks? Is this what it will be like when the boys are teenagers? Oh I have dreams of concert nights and running around trying to find black pants.


Back to the point! Do you know how hard it is to find swim trunks in December? You know since we’re having a freak snow storm going on also! So late Sunday night I dress everyone warm and hope in the car, two stores later and no swim trunks. I have a pissy exchange student who swears to me that he CAN NOT wear the old shorts. Along with two grumpy boys who didn’t get anything while we were out, mental note giving the boys something each time we go to a store was not my best idea ever. Now each time we walk into a store their grubby little hands reach out, like the money tree grew an extra branch!


Ooops off track again! So Monday you know between making cookies and grocery store runs, we try two more stores. Thankfully our last stop has swim trunks and even better they were only $5, being a thrifty mom I know I would appreciate this. For some reason I doubt that is the case on the other end.


So here we were Wednesday night in the middle of a snow storm, school was cancelled that day will it be cancelled again the next day? Yup you know it School was cancelled again, so those swim trunks that made me shed a few handfuls of hair are sitting in a bag. Do you think it would be mean to make him run around outside in them? Just playing would server him right for being a turd and making me go crazy last minute trying to find a pair. All I have to say is those better be warn before he goes back home!

Yup this would be a cute look. Don't you think?